Pencil sketch of a tattoo design showing a Roman numeral clock face with a monarch butterfly, orchids and ornamental swirls, with no body placement shown.

Clock, orchids and butterfly design sketch

Botanical · Black and grey · Flash

A pencil drawing of a tattoo design centred on a Roman numeral clock face with ornate hands and a decorative central dial. A monarch butterfly with shaded wings sits to the upper right, and a cluster of orchids with curling stems and beaded strands fills the lower left. The linework is fine and the shading is soft grey, giving the sketch a realistic, layered finish on cream paper.

Botanical Realism Clock Roman numeral Butterfly Orchid Flower Key Swirl Bead Pocket watch Sketch

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Tomasz,

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The clock in the harbour office has stopped again, so I have taken its works apart on the kitchen table, the way you showed me before you went south. The pocket-watch mechanism is full of salt. Mrs Akers brought it up from the pier along with two purple orchids wrapped in wet newspaper. She says they come from the glasshouse at Hallow Point and she wants them for the summer dance. I told her I am no florist. She said I had better learn.

Monarchs came over the island last Tuesday, hundreds of them, lifting off the dunes like ash from a bonfire. One landed on the brass face of the clock and sat there with its wings closed while I worked the escapement. I did not move until it left, which made me late for the ferry, and Mr Pell says the mail boat will not wait for sentiment.

I have kept the spare hand you carved from a cherry offcut. It fits the minute spindle better than the original, which I suspect you knew, you rascal. Enclosed are the glass beads from the tin under the window, the ones that rattled on the sill whenever the wind came off the water. I strung them the way your mother did, one for every hour, so you can count them and know nothing is missing.

Come back before the orchids drop. I will keep the clock running until you do, even if I have to wind it by hand every morning and tell it the time from the lighthouse bell.

Yours, Eleanor